A jumper connection on the end of a flexible flat electrical cable is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,626. The cable has exposed and bared conductors that are frictionally engaged by respective electrical terminals, and a stiffener holds the cable while the conductors of the cable are engaged against the terminals.
A flexible flat electrical cable comprises, multiple electrical conductors that extend along a continuous ribbon. The cross sections of the conductors can be round or flat, according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,385, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,149,026.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,051,544, both signal conductors and the ground conductors extend side by side in the same plane. A short piece of insulation is inserted in the cable. The signal conductors pass under the short piece of insulation. The ground conductors extend over the short piece of insulation. The short piece of insulation elevates the ground conductors from the remainder of the cable to improve access to the ground conductors.
U.S. applications, Ser. No. 08/338,931 and Ser. No. 08/338,920, both filed Nov. 14, 1995, disclose jumper connections. The signal conductors are coplanar in a pitch spacing sequence with a signal conductor absent from at least one of the pitch spacings. The ground conductors lie within the absent pitch spacing when the insulation is cut away and the signal conductors are to be contacted with an electrical terminal. Thus, the ground conductor is in the same plane as the signal conductor when the conductors extend beyond the insulation. A difficulty with this flat, flexible jumper connection and other flat, flexible cables resides in using specially designed tools to create a connection. Furthermore, this jumper connection type is mated to a low insertive force connector or a zero force connector on the printed circuit boards and, as such, fails to provide 360 degree shield protection through the connector to the printed circuit board.
The problem to be solved is to create a 360 degree shielded jumper connection with a flat, flexible cable, and without crimps or staples that increase costs.